So it has been long enough that I think it is fair to say that the game is not going to be delivered. I have seen several excuses speaking to VN game creating inexperience, something I find absurd given the fact that a 14 year old can create a visual novel using one of the basic apps on Steam, or illness (yet comics continue to be produced) and I just want to know where the money went. I find it unlikely that nearly 300,000 dollars went into a few drawings and screenshots equating about 1 hour of play. So what is the deal? Is there a plan to send us backers some sort of calendar or tshirt or any of the things aside from the actual visual novel that were promised? If not I think that we deserve some sort of budgeting report detailing what was spent on what. (If this has been released somewhere and I missed it I'd love someone to point me in the correct direction.)

Estimated delivery on the game was 4.5 years ago. You can't just make 300,000 disappear like this, it's really messed up.

I understand that Fred's personal life has had issues. His parents are sick, his wife gets sick, he gets sick, certain staff for the project left, it took more work than everyone thought - it's all very unfortunate. And if we pledged the money to support Fred's family and/or his career and/or his tech and/or his store, all of which have been mentioned as reasons for where the money went, then this wouldn't be a problem.

But not only is there no delivery of the game at all, getting any information, whether it's updates or excuses, is like pulling teeth.

If the game isn't going to come out and you can't repay the money, just tell us. Say "thanks for the support though" and give all the backers some hand drawn art, not copies. I know it's disappointing and scary, but freaking tell us. It's extremely disrespectful and unprofessional to just leave it up in the air. Some of us paid money we had to scrimp and scavenge for, and we've looked forward to it for years, and NOTHING AT ALL has come of it.

When it's an accomplishment for one comic a week to happen, I think it can be surmised that the VN just isn't going to happen.

Someone needs to sack up and deal with this already.

EDIT: From one of the comments on the kickstarter:

"Since then, he's been up and down with goal #1 (regular comics), made some progress on goal #2 (the megagear store shipping backlog), and basically no real progress on goal #3 (the MTVN). I think the plan is still ok, and if he can get the comics rolling again and get the store backlog finished, then that should give him time to work on the VN again. But life keeps throwing poo at him, and he hasn't managed it yet.

I totally understand backers being upset. I will say that yelling at him doesn't really help things. It's not a matter of motivation; he feels bad enough about this already. It's more that he's dug himself a giant hole and most of what he tries only seems to make the hole deeper. I won't ask people to stop though. They have every right to be unhappy."

I get that life has kept 'throwing poo' at Fred, but other people who also make a living with their art deal with it. They find ways. And no, yelling at Fred won't help, but what else are we supposed to do? No one is communicating with us, no one is offering us refunds (or if they are, it's "please send in an email for a refund and basically everyone else can go fuck themselves"). No one is offering us anything.

It's really unprofessional and it's always "poor Fred, poor Fred, his life is hard and he can't face the criticism," but what about the rest of us? What about the fans that have been waiting literal years for something that's not going to happen? What about the people that supported Fred and Megatokyo?

Final edit: I want to post this quote from Nicole Trajano, also on the kickstarter comments. It's actually a mix of two of her comments for brevity's sake, and I want to just leave this here to show just how messed up this situation really is.

It's been 5 years (6th since its June) since i found out about this project. I backed $115 dollars for this.

For you it might be small money but i was a high school student that time, and i was also a foreign student. So money was pretty tight, but i begged my mom for this, thinking it will be my gift for passing university.

i wanted to clarify the exchange rate between our currency. In my country i basically spent 6k for this project. So i basically studied hard for a double scholarship in return to ease my families financial problems.

I am just ranting here. I'm sorry, and i know you guys are frustrated too.......im just worried that this project is forgotten.

I do read the updates and forums from time to time but.....i dont know where this project is heading really.

Who knows, I might be married by the time this is done, lol.......im sorry.

Its just........sad for me........and......yea, i dont know anymore.

Take care of your parents well.

My parents are also going through a lot of surgeries and health problems.

As im struggling in finally getting a permanent job, after a year of struggles....really.

Its gettiNg harder to get a job for the new generatiom, i hope my brothers will finish college smoothly and find a good job, hope they dont struggle like me.

Im sorry im ranting......Goodbye.

So this girl sends in her country's equivalent of 6k for this, worked hard to make up for that in her family, also has her parents having struggles and surgeries, and not a single thing has been said to her. And it's been two months since she posted it.

I want to ask, "doesn't Fred care? does he not feel bad about this?" except that I know some fire-putter-outer of his will come, if we're lucky enough to get a response at all, to say "of course he feels bad about it, he's inconsolable, he's so ashamed he can't face this himself," and we will be expected to, once again, say "poor Fred, poor Fred, here, take another six years' grace period."

If anyone else failed this badly to deliver and communicate, they wouldn't have gotten away with it. But somehow Fred does, and people like Nicole suffer.